The knock-on effects of BBC accuracy failures

We have observed in the past that BBC content which fails to adhere to editorial guidelines on accuracy and impartiality not only misleads the readers or viewers of those particular reports but also has the secondary effect of generating additional inaccurate reporting in the future due to the reliance of BBC journalists on content previously produced by their colleagues. One such example appeared on the BBC News website on June 7^th in the form of an uncredited report headlined ‘Israel military on UN failing to protect children list’.

That report’s opening paragraphs tell readers that:

“The UN has added the Israeli military to a list of offenders failing to protect children last year, Israel’s ambassador to the UN says. […]

Thousands of children have been killed in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza, and thousands more are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

The annual list by the secretary general covers the killing of children in conflict and denial of access to aid and targeting of schools and hospitals. It will be included in a report to be presented to the UN Security Council next week.

It was not immediately clear which violations the Israeli army is accused of committing.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad will also be included in the list, reports said.”

The report goes on:

“Last month, the UN said at least 7,797 children had been killed during the war based on data relating to identified bodies provided by the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

Also last month, the UN revised down the proportion of reported fatalities that were women and children from 69% to 52% of the total number of deaths.

Israel said the reduction showed the UN had relied on false data from Hamas. The UN says it is now relying on figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza rather than from the Hamas-run Government Media Office (GMO). The GMO meanwhile says Israeli attacks have killed more than 15,000 children.”

As noted here previously, UNOCHA’s change from using Hamas Government Media Office figures to Hamas Ministry of Health figures was explained by a UN spokesman at the time as attributable to the “fog of war”.

As we see, the BBC nevertheless continues to promote the Hamas GMO’s unsubstantiated claims regarding child casualties while failing to note the fact that Hamas and other terrorist organisations recruit minors – i.e. individuals who would be classed as children – and that neither the Hamas Ministry of Health nor the Hamas GMO differentiate between civilians and combatants or provide information on the topic of casualties caused by shortfall missiles or other terrorist armaments.

Readers are then provided with a link to a BBC Verify report published on May 16^th which was previously discussed here:

LOOKING BEHIND THE BBC’S ‘70% WOMEN AND CHILDREN’ MANTRA

Readers are next told that:

“On Friday, the Associated Press news agency said its analysis of Gaza’s health ministry data found that the proportion of Palestinian women and children being killed in the Israel-Hamas war appeared to have declined sharply.

It quoted an expert at the US non-profit research group CNA as saying this was linked to reduced intensity of Israeli air strikes.”

A CNA expert did indeed give such a statement to AP but the BBC’s account of AP’s analysis fails to inform readers of additional points:

“AP’s examination of the reports found flaws in the Palestinian record keeping. As Gaza’s hospital system collapsed in December and January, the ministry began relying on hard-to-verify “media reports” to register new deaths. Its March report included 531 individuals who were counted twice, and many deaths were self-reported by families, instead of health officials.”

The uncredited report goes on to tell readers that:

“However Israeli air strikes on Gaza have continued. On Thursday morning an air strike reportedly killed at least 35 people at a central Gaza school packed with displaced people. The US said it had seen reports that 14 children were killed in the strike. Israel has named 17 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members it says the strike killed.”

The link in that paragraph takes readers to a June 6^th report by Yolande Knell which states that the source of the unverified claim that 14 children were killed in what the writer of this report fails to adequately clarify was a strike on terrorists using a UN school as a base was once again the Hamas GMO:

HOW DID BBC NEWS REPORT A STRIKE ON TERRORISTS IN NUSEIRAT?

The BBC’s article continues with a description of another incident, again failing to clarify that it was a strike on Hamas terrorists:

“Last month an Israeli missile last month [sic] set fire to a camp for displaced Palestinians near the southern city of Rafah, reportedly killing 45 people including many children and sparking global outrage. The Israeli military said it had not expected such a fire to break out.”

In fact, preliminary investigations showed that the fire in Tel al Sultan had likely been caused by a secondary explosion at a Hamas weapons or fuel store rather than by “an Israeli missile”:

BBC REPORTS ON TAL AL SULTAN FIRE PROMOTE MISINFORMATION

The report goes on:

“Israel has also been accused of delaying the entry of much-needed aid into Gaza, depriving those living on the Palestinian territory of clean water, food, medicines as well as fuel. It denies the accusation and accuses UN bodies and humanitarian organisations of failing to distribute aid that is allowed in.

The US-based famine early warning system network Fews Net says it is “possible, if not likely” that famine was happening in northern Gaza in April and an Israeli military operation in Rafah in southern Gaza was worsening food insecurity there.”

As documented here recently, in early June the IPC published a report titled “Famine Review Committee: Review of the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) IPC-Compatible Analysis for the Northern Governorates of the Gaza Strip” which has not received any coverage on the BBC News website. As noted by commentators, that report concludes that the FEWS NET analysis published in March is not plausible and points out the omission of certain categories of food deliveries.

BBC NEWS CONTINUES TO PROMOTE A NARRATIVE ON FAMINE IN GAZA

This BBC report closes with the promotion of unverified claims from a Jordan-based spokesperson for the UN body which has failed to prevent terrorists from exploiting its schools and other facilities in the Gaza Strip:

“That operation has displaced more than a million Palestinians from Rafah, where they had sought refuge from fighting elsewhere in Gaza, and to sandy coastal areas or the city of Khan Younis, which is largely in ruins.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees Unrwa says the movement of such a large number of people in such a short timeframe alongside a sharp fall in aid deliveries is having deadly consequences.

“Children are dying due to malnutrition and dehydration,” Unrwa spokeswoman Juliette Touma said.”

BBC audiences are not told that Touma has been promoting such claims – including in BBC content – for at least six months or of the connection between that alleged “sharp fall in aid deliveries” and the fact that UNRWA (which recently restricted access to its database on aid) has admitted that it has been unable to deal with looting by criminal gangs and Hamas, despite the existence of a UN Department of Safety and Security.

As we see, this report has remarkably little to tell BBC audiences about its stated subject matter and the overwhelming majority of its word-count simply recycles inaccuracies and omissions found in previous BBC reports. The BBC’s failure to conduct effective fact-checking together with its uncritical promotion of unverified claims from obviously unreliable sources such as the ‘health ministry’ run by a terrorist organisation clearly does not serve the interests of its funding public. 

Related Articles:

WHAT WERE BBC AUDIENCES TOLD ABOUT THE HAMAS FACILITY UNDER UNRWA’S HQ?

BBC AMPLIFICATION OF UNRWA PR CAMPAIGNS